Modeling and Analysis of Lifetime Curve of Amorphous Silicon/Crystalline Silicon Heterostructure Solar Cell

Abstract

The modeling and analysis of recombination properties is one of the critical aspects in the design and development of high efficiency amorphous silicon (a-Si)/crystalline silicon (c-Si) heterostructure solar cell (SH-SC). In this paper, we have developed a recombination model pertinent for a-Si/c-Si SH-SC. Based on the model, an analytical expression for the relationship between effective carrier lifetime ( $\tau _{\mathrm {eff}}$ ) and excess carrier concentration ( $\Delta n$ ), commonly termed as lifetime curve, is derived and the results are validated with the experimental data. The results show that the inverse of $\tau _{\mathrm {eff}}$ , after correcting for the contributions of Auger and radiative recombination in silicon, when plotted as a function of $\Delta n$ , shows a linear characteristic, with each of the slope and the intercept, providing definitive details about the recombination processes occurring in the device.